


Across Boundaries

by TheSwingbyJeanHonoreFragonard



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, Light Angst, M/M, Magical Realism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22456300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSwingbyJeanHonoreFragonard/pseuds/TheSwingbyJeanHonoreFragonard
Summary: A promise ten years in the making.
Relationships: Lee Felix/Yang Jeongin | I.N
Comments: 14
Kudos: 88





	Across Boundaries

Felix becomes aware that the man across the stone bridge can see him.

There’s no magic to it. Or maybe there is. Just a little.

The Lunar New Year festival is in full swing. Has been since sundown. Probably will be until midnight. Until later. Children are running about in colorful traditional clothing--the girls with their hair braided--chasing each other with sparklers, begging for another round at the goldfish catching booth. Some of them pull balloons. Some of them carry stuffed animals. Others shove sugary sweet desserts into their mouths. They all run and scream and laugh and play to keep the January chill out of their bones, Felix knows. He hasn’t felt the cold in so long but he can see it escape their mouths in faint white puffs. 

Teenagers sneak off into the trees to make out, using the celebratory popping of all of the fireworks to mask the noise of their hurried steps and breathless gasps. They stain their freshly-bought silk hanboks on the grass and on the dirt. 

There’s a long line waiting at nearly every food truck. Whether it’s the beef skewers or the fish cakes or pastries filled with red bean paste or simple fried dough on a stick sprinkled with powdered sugar, there is a crowd waiting.

The night air is syrupy thick with the smell of grilled food, with the joy of the beginning of a new year, with the glow of a thousand paper lanterns drifting towards the white clouds and the starry sky and the half-full moon.

All around Felix, there is laughter and celebration. The crowd is large. The people are many and they surge back and forth like the ocean’s tide.

And Felix is seen.

He is an unseeable being. Yet he is _seen_.

He can feel it on his skin. Up and down his arms like static.

He knows this feeling like he knows the freckles that dot his arms and face and hands and legs. He knows it like he knows the intricate design of the wooden fox mask he wears to keep himself hidden, the contours painted white and red and teal.

The mortal man on the other side of the bridge isn’t looking at anyone else. He is looking at Felix.

Felix hasn’t been seen in years. Not by humans. Not here.

Despite such a monumental thing, the festivities continue around him uninterrupted. The music increases in volume as the traditional instrument band parades closer and closer. The drums and gongs thumping thumping thumping like some ancient, thundering heartbeat. The wind gusts and sends the multicolored flags dancing, sends the paper lanterns swaying.

The two of them, the mortal and the immortal, stare at each other from opposite ends of the stone bridge. Beneath them, the river babbles quietly.

The human is constantly jostled and pushed aside by the movement of the crowd. Their attempts to remain upright in the nonsense becomes ever more entertaining to watch.

The other is a spirit. Ancient and imperceptible to most human senses. The crowd swerves around him. They part in front of him only to rejoin behind him. They unknowingly steer clear of him as if they can sense the power he holds. Even if they can't see him.

But this human can see him and looks at him despite of all of that. Looks at this young mortal who stands out among the revelers because he has forsaken a pastel-colored hanbok for stark, modern clothes. A large backpack hangs off of his shoulders as if he has come here from very far away or plans to go very far away starting from here.

Felix smiles and though he is positive his mask hides his face, the human gasps as if he can see Felix's toothy grin.

That is enough, Felix thinks. Whether he can be seen or not, he has spent too much of this special night in the human world as it is. He feels the moon above his head travel across the sky. He can feel her take her magic with her. He must step back through the veil to the spirit world or be trapped here with the mortals for an entire year. With such a punishment looming physically over his head as the moon dips towards the trees, Felix turns around and walks away. 

He must forget that someone can see him. It is not important. Or, at least, not more important than the slowly shutting door between himself and his home.

Felix walks until what is beneath his toes changes from the cold, dry stone of the bridge to the softly-packed earth of the shrine grounds. He walks quickly. The cloak about his shoulders catches every stray breeze and drags across the soft skin of his arms. As he rushes up the wooden steps towards the shrine’s altar, he holds a hand up to the mask over his face to hold it in place.

There are less people here.

Everyone is more interested in the food and the games and the secret New Years kisses shared in the shadows than they are interested in offering alms.

When he reaches the top of the stairs, he pauses.

Not just because he is winded but because he can still feel eyes on him. Square on his back.

He turns, slowly, and can see that human man clambering up the steep wooden steps behind him. The human nearly trips over his shoes in his haste to follow Felix. The mortal's actions are... confusing... entertaining... but also makes Felix curious. Why does the mortal follow him so? Why does he not run screaming?

The two of them stand closer together here than they did on the bridge.

There are less people to block the warm fairy glow of the lantern lights.

Felix looks at the human’s face. At his sharp-angled features. At his dark brown, inquisitive, impressionable eyes. At his… smile? Tired yet joyful. Serene, almost, as if following Felix has given him the most purpose he’s ever had.

Felix does not wait for him. He turns and continues across the shrine grounds, closer and closer to the altar. Closer and closer to his way home. Time is running out.

The air feels charged here in the shrine. Primed with energy. Everything hot with the fervor of numerous prayers and wishes.

Humans have sealed their hopes in the coins they’ve tossed into the well. They have written their dreams onto small wooden planks and have used ribbons to hang them from the branches of the trees.

Felix can feel the magic of their hope and it guides his steps towards the veil between the human world and the spirit world. Not much farther now.

He passes by several other humans. Dressed in hanbok. Flower petals in their hair. They speak in low voices. Shake the small bells tied around their wrists. Clap their hands together in prayer. Chant and wish. Await blessings from the pacing monks. The January air is cold but the power that pours from their lips--their _faith_ \--warms Felix’s skin like he stands before a bonfire.

He steps one foot up onto the altar’s shrine and then the other. His cloak drags through the dirt behind him. Above him, the light of the moon makes the solid stone beneath his toes feel as granular as sand. Like he stands on the beach. Like the ocean is pulling sand out from beneath his heels, Felix feels as if he is moving even though he is standing still.

There are still those eyes on him.

He is still unwatchable yet he is being watched.

Felix turns around.

The human man still follows him. He is taller than Felix yet his worry makes him look so small. He pushes people out of his way, cuts through the line waiting in front of the well, all to come to a halt right in front of the altar. Right in front of Felix. Exhausted, the human man leans his weight onto the carved stone statue that protects the wishes of the people who come to the shrine. 

The stone statue of a fox. Painted white and red and teal.

Felix wants to say something. The words sit at the tip of his tongue but he can’t verbalize them. What can he say? But then... What words does he possess that can even be _comprehended_ by a mortal?

The human man breathes heavily with exertion. Sweat dampens their forehead. Makes their dark hair stick to the sides of their round, red-cheeked face. They don't say anything. Not that they do not know how to but that they feel there is no reason to. There is recognition in his gaze. Expectation. As if he only has to present himself and Felix will somehow understand what to make of him.

It takes a moment for it to creep in, but Felix can’t shake the feeling that he knows this human. That this human saw him before. Made him feel _seen_ before.

In this exact same place.

Felix no longer has enough of a grasp on the man-made concept of time to be able to accurately count the years that it has been, but he knows that this human was a mere child the last time they encountered each other. Perhaps a third of the height they are now. With less angles to the face. With less sadness in the gaze. Yes. It comes back to him now. This man had once been a child with tears in his eyes as his parents scolded him for running away, hoisted him up--kicking and screaming--into their arms to take him back down the stairs to the festivities. His small, chubby hands had been reaching for Felix. Reaching and reaching. Then he was gone.

Felix frees himself from the memory. He feels the distance between their worlds drifting ever farther apart. If he does not act now, the gap will be too large to jump across.

So he faces away from the mortal.

And he leaps.

The travel is instant. In less than a breath, he is in the spirit world. His own world. And his home is just as decorated in the colors of celebration as the world he has left. Perhaps even more saturated. Even more colorful and beautiful and unimaginable.

Felix can’t even take a step off of the altar when he feels someone behind him. Closer than anyone has been in a long time.

He turns. Comes face to face with the human man that has followed him since the stone bridge. He shouldn't be able to be here, but he is here. He shouldn't be able to look at Felix, shouldn't be able to see him, but he sees him.

Up close, he is handsome. Tall. Warm. He smells a bit like burnt sugar. A bit like spices. A bit like baked bread and cinnamon and vanilla.

He smells human.

He smells like he does not belong.

Felix should push him away. Push him back through the veil to the human world while there is still a breath of time left.

But he doesn’t.

He should stop the human man from reaching towards him, putting his warm hands on the corners of his fox mask. He should stop him.

But he doesn’t.

The man lifts the wooden mask. Effortlessly tosses it away. Effortlessly reveals Felix’s freckled face, bright brown eyes and small, surprised mouth.

“Don’t you remember,” the human exhales, touching his fingertips to Felix’s cheeks. To his ears. To his chin. To the corner of his lips. As if everything is exactly how he remembers it. “Ten years ago… You promised me that if we saw each other again, you would take me with you. I've waited. I've waited so long. Every year I came here.”

Felix has no concept of promises, but just hearing such words brings back a memory. A tiny fragment of kaleidoscope glass.

He knows who this child is. He didn’t before but now he does. He knows this human’s name. “Jeongin.” And the syllables are like a wish on his tongue. Something foreign stirs in his chest. Something hot and nearly incomprehensible. It does not make sense to Felix until he names the emotion: happiness. "Jeongin."

Jeongin lets go of a held breath. He squeezes his eyes shut in relief. Opens them. “Thank you.” He flings his arms around Felix’s shoulders. Pulls him into an embrace that _shouldn’t be possible_. They are from two different worlds. Their paths should not cross! But the universe, with all of her laws and rules has, at least for this one moment, looked the other way. “I knew you would remember,” Jeongin breathes out. Almost sobs. He trembles against Felix’s frame. He would crumple to the ground if not for Felix sweeping him up in his arms. “I knew you would come back for me.” Jeongin pulls away from the hug and looks at Felix with the tiniest of tears in the corners of his eyes.

Felix _does_ remember. 

It all comes to him in a vivid flash.

He remembers the rest of that night ten years ago. He remembers the reason why he made such an impossible promise in the first place. Felix remembers the purple splotches that had dotted that human child’s back and arms on that frigid, moonless night.

The moon continues on her journey. Angles her light differently. Pushes their shadows in a slightly different direction.

Felix feels the path between the human world and the spirit world close behind him. They are here together now.

The fox spirit looks up at the moon. In the human world, she is small and silver and almost inconsequential. In the spirit world, she takes up half the sky. She leans so close she can nearly be touched. And her pull is so strong that Felix fears he may float towards her if not for the solid weight of Jeongin's arms keeping him grounded. Or perhaps that is the buoyancy of the smile forming on his face. Perhaps it is his joy that threatens to make him weightless. “Come,” Felix says, grabbing hold of Jeongin’s hand. It is so warm… It is so human that it _burns_ against his palm. “Let us join in the festivities.”

“Yes,” Jeongin agrees. “Let’s ring in the new year.”

They walk down the stairs in front of the shrine, towards the music and the food and the lights.


End file.
